Emma Woodhouse is twenty-one, mistress of her widowed father's house at Hartfield and the leading young lady of the village of Highbury. Having taken credit for her governess's happy marriage, she decides she has a talent for matchmaking and takes up Harriet Smith, a sweet young woman of unknown parentage, determined to find her a husband above her station.
Emma's schemes misfire again and again because she misreads the people around her, including the ambitious vicar Mr Elton, the charming Frank Churchill and the reserved, accomplished Jane Fairfax. Her neighbour and old family friend Mr Knightley is the only one who regularly tells her when she is wrong. The supporting cast includes the endlessly talkative Miss Bates and the hypochondriac Mr Woodhouse.
Austen said she was creating a heroine whom no one but herself would much like, yet Emma's flaws and growing self-knowledge make the novel one of her richest. Its intricate plotting and irony influenced the modern novel, and it inspired adaptations including the film Clueless.
Book details
| Author | Jane Austen |
|---|---|
| First published | 1815 |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Classic |
| Type | Fiction |
| Pages (approx.) | 474 |
| Setting | Highbury, Surrey, England, early 1800s |
Themes
- Self-deception
- Class
- Matchmaking
- Maturity
- Village society
Who should read it
Readers who love Pride and Prejudice and want Austen's subtlest comedy of misjudgement and growing up.
If you liked this, try
- Pride and Prejudice
- Middlemarch
- Persuasion